Is this IT course a good deal

[L3nny]

Seen this on Groupon, looks like it could be interesting but I know sometimes Groupon deals aren't as good as they make out.

My contract is up at work soon so looking to get a few qualifications to make finding another job a bit easier

http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/national-deal/e-careers/3794628

[flymo]

personally, if I were choosing the candidate, those qualifications would not mean squat to me. I would be interested to discuss your experience and how you would go about solving various types of problems. If the training provides some experience that you don't already have then it may be of benefit to you, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

[L3nny]

Well it's only £80 and It will keep me out of trouble for a bit. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't paying for something that was free/cheaper elsewhere.

I know most of these qualifications are worthless but in my experience to get past the agency/HR idiots who haven't got a clue what the actual job they are advertising is, it helps to have a few qualifications.

[tigersaw]

You can register for a demo first on the e-careers website

[Dave20046]

Well it's only £80 and It will keep me out of trouble for a bit. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't paying for something that was free/cheaper elsewhere.

I know most of these qualifications are worthless but in my experience to get past the agency/HR idiots who haven't got a clue what the actual job they are advertising is, it helps to have a few qualifications.

You're probably right there but to an employer it's probably just MS/cisco

[Stuuk1]

Those who complete all aspects of the course will receive a certificate of completion as a CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, and Security+ Certified Technician and can take exams to recognise achievements for an additional fee.

So.... Does this mean the certificate means diddly squat?

[tigersaw]

So.... Does this mean the certificate means diddly squat?

I would have thought so.
I get them issued all the time when I attend worthless non-tested courses that my company seems to go in for.

[L3nny]

Yer looks like it doesn't include the exams, probably a waste of time then. Unless of course I pay for the exams as well.

Thought it was a bit to cheap to be true.

[Bibio]

see what your local collage has to offer. i know when i was doing my HND networking there were a few people in the cisco lab to do refreshers before taking the exam.

[flymo]

what kind of experience do you have already?

[AZZ3R]

Apprenticeship? Paid learning. & you get the certificate at the end aswell as the experiance which employers favour.

[L3nny]

At the moment I support Windows and AIX servers. Mainly just monitoring, maintaining and upgrading existing systems or working out what has gone wrong if there are any problems. I don't have specialist skills in any one thing in particular though which is why I was looking at doing a bit more training.

At 32 I think I am a bit old for an apprenticeship.

[flymo]

At the moment I support Windows and AIX servers. Mainly just monitoring, maintaining and upgrading existing systems or working out what has gone wrong if there are any problems. I don't have specialist skills in any one thing in particular though which is why I was looking at doing a bit more training.

At 32 I think I am a bit old for an apprenticeship.

Then I would recommend that you capitalise on that. Detail out what you have done and how you have gone about it. You will likely find that there is far more there than you realise. For me, that stuff is far more valuable than any certificates you might approach me with.

[-Ralph-]

It's a few years since I did any recruiting for tech support / consultants, but in addition to technical lines of questioning as Flymo suggests to prove the candidate actually has some experience, it would be professional certifications I'd be looking for such as MCSE / MCITP, VMware VCP, Cisco CCNA, Citrix CCA, etc.